Saguaro East Nat'l Park & Breakfast

For some reason Gerry and I woke up before 730 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  Terrible!  We decided to go out for breakfast at a local restaurant which will remain unnamed.  We got there early enough to get seated right away and the coffee was poured very quickly.  Good sign.  We ordered the special and I shared it with Gerry getting the pancakes and I got the rest, including some sausage.  I think the sausage might not have been cooked properly or the grease was old and it did a number on my stomach.  I won't go into detail for your benefit.

I had plans to go shooting with Al & Sharon around noon and was waiting to see how my stomach would react.  Not good, so I cancelled on the shooting and we will schedule it again real soon.  I always enjoy shooting and hope we can go in the near future.

We hung around the motorhome and finally about 3pm got cabin (motorhome) fever and had to get out.  The Saguaro East Nat'l Park is very near to us and we always enjoy the 9 mile ride through the park.  At various times of the year there are different cacti blooming, but today there weren't any in bloom.  It was still an enjoyable ride and very relaxing to us.  

We were very surprised to see the number of cacti that had died since last spring.  There was a very long cold snap in January 2011 and evidentially a number of the cacti couldn't handle it.  We counted well over 50 dead ones, including a really neat one we had taken a picture of in the fall of 2006.  Here is what it looked like then and up to last spring.

Here is what it looks like in January of 2012.  It was a sad scene and it feels like we lost something really special.  The cactus was well over 120 years old and held a special place for us.  Sad!

 
We chatted with the ranger on duty on the way out about the number of cactus that had died the past year and they were suprised there were so many.  The previous thinking was that the long hot summer was the cause of so many dying, but evidently that is not the case.

We took our usual number of photos in the park and some are shown below.  The park was used to graze cattle a number of years ago and the cattle ate the young saguaros before they could get large enough to protect themselves.  Since it has become a park and the cattle have been banned, the growth of new saguaros has increasing each year. 

On the way home we drove by a beautiful home that looks more like a hotel than a home.  It is called Rancho Milagro (Miracle Ranch) and is fantastic.  Rich or poor, it is nice to have money.

The fences in the picture enclose a number of horse riding areas and they were running a tractor with a rake over them and they looked like a horse show was coming up.